The Ohio State football team is all-in on the 2024 season. All of the moves that they have made have led them to a national championship or bust season. There will be a big drop-off in talent on this team in 2025, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
You might say, "Ohio State is all in every year". You're not wrong, but the stakes are much higher this year. The Buckeyes have certain standards that they have to hit this year. Otherwise, Ryan Day won't be around to see how 2025 works out. The Buckeyes need to win the Big Ten and beat Michigan at the bare minimum for him to survive.
With a new AD, Day knows he no longer has Gene Smith as a security blanket. That's why he went to the transfer portal to get a new quarterback, a great safety, a solid running back, and made multiple staff changes. He's going all-in in a way we haven't seen the Ohio State football program do.
There were three particular moments over the course of the last few years that led up to this moment. Each of them had a profound effect on the upcoming season, whether we knew it at the time or not. The first one happened a few years ago and has affected how the team is currently constructed.
1. Greg Studrawa strikes out on the recruiting trail
There is a reason that Coach Stud is no longer with the Ohio State football program. He simply could not keep up with the recruiting the way that he needed to towards the end of his time with the Buckeyes, despite signing some really great players prior to being let go.
Studrawa was able to land Paris Johnson Jr. and Donovan Jackson, both of whom were five-star recruits. The problem lies with the 2022 class, which was the last one he recruited. None of those players are currently in line to start for the Buckeyes three years into their careers.
Because that offensive line depth was poor, Justin Frye started with the cupboard bare behind Jackson and Johnson Jr. Frye hasn't exactly excelled on the recruiting trail either but the lack of depth hampered his ability to get more guys in the program who could be ready to play in two or three years.
This led the Buckeyes to go out and get Josh Simmons in the transfer portal last season and for them to go and get Seth McLaughlin this season. Simmons will start at left tackle for the second straight year and McLaughlin is in a battle for the center spot, possibly supplanting Carson Hinzman.
The offensive line was the worst unit on the team in 2023 and it looks like that might be the case again in 2024. Poor recruiting years ago has led us to this point. The next moment that led to the Buckeyes being national title or bust in 2024 was one particular play a season ago.
2. Kyle McCord throws an interception on Ohio State's final drive vs. Michigan
This single play ended the Ohio State football team's season in 2023. It ended any shot they had of getting revenge on TTUN for the past two years. It also kept them from a chance to win the Big Ten and a shot to play in the College Football Playoff.
That play also ended Kyle McCord's Ohio State career. It led Ryan Day to realize that McCord was not good enough to lead the rest of the team to a national title. His ceiling just wasn't high enough. While he wasn't terrible, that ceiling is important to winning it all.
Day went out and got Will Howard to take his place. The transfer from Kansas State has a world of experience and is more mobile than McCord. He's the guy that Day has chosen to ride with. Time will tell if that's the right move for this year or not.
But had McCord not gotten hit on that final play and thrown a pick, we wouldn't be here. If McCord had led the Buckeyes to a game-winning touchdown drive, he would have gone down as an Ohio State legend. Michigan doesn't win a tainted national championship and the Buckeyes go to the CFP.
That's how much things live on a razor's edge with the Ohio State football program. One play changed the course of how Day wanted to run his program. Now, he's got a new offensive staff that he brought in to make this team a national champion in 2024.
The final moment that got us here is something that happened after that awful Michigan loss.
3. The terrible showing in the Cotton Bowl
No one really wanted to play in the Cotton Bowl after falling to Michigan for the third straight year. The Ohio State football team thought they were going to be playing in the College Football Playoff that weekend instead. But they ended up playing Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.
It was one of the most disgusting displays of football I have ever seen. The defense was as good as ever, but the offense was horrendous. McCord has already entered the portal by that point and it was up to Devin Brown to lead the Buckeyes to a victory.
Then Brown got hurt late in the first quarter. Even before he left the game, he didn't look that good. In came Lincoln Kienholz and the offense looked even worse. It wasn't all the quarterbacks' fault though. The offensive line looked like a group of five turnstiles.
While Ohio State football fans didn't need to see the Buckeyes win that game, they needed to see something better than that. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Fans were appalled and called for action, lamenting how bad things had gotten.
That last game of the season was what Ryan Day needed to see to get things in motion for the 2024 season. He started work in the transfer portal and decided on the coaching staff changes that he wanted to make.
Those were the three moments that have led us to where we are now; Ohio State is heading into a make-or-break season.